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Better Farming 
Special 



BOSTON & ALBANY 
RAILROAD 



March 30, 31, April 1, 2 
1910 




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Souvenir 



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Better Farming 
Special 



BOSTON ^ ALBANY 
RAILROAD 



March 30, 31, April 1, 2 
1910 



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TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Page 
Roster 7 

Itinerary 8 

Exhibits 9-i i 

Program 12 

Note of Explanation 12 

The Massachusetts Agricultural College 13-18 

The State Board of Agriculture 19-21 

Agriculture in Massachusetts 22-25 

Forestry Work in Massachusetts 26-28 

Illustrations: 

Chapel, North and South Dormitories, Massachusetts 
Agricultural College 2 

East Experiment Station, Massachusetts Agricultural 
College 14 

West Experiment Station, Massachusetts Agricultural 
College 16 

Forest Fire Wagon 27 



ROSTER 



The following named representatives of the State of 
Massachusetts will be on the train: 



From the Massachusetts Agricultural College 

Kenyon L. BUTTERFIELD . . President of tJic College 
William P. Brooks . . Director of Experiment Station 
William D. Hurd . . Director of Short Courses 

James A. Foord . Professor of Farm Administration 

George E. Stone .... Professor of Botany 

Fred C. Sears .... Professor of Pomology 

William P. B. Lockwood Assistant Professor of Dairying 
Ray L. Gribben . . Instructor in Animal Husbandry 

Henri D. Haskins . Head of Fertilizer Division of 

Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station 
Philip H. Smith . Head of Feed and Dairy Division 

Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station 
Sidney B. Haskell . . . Distructor in Agronomy 
Charles H. White Field Agent 

From the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture 

J. Lewis Ellsworth . . Secretary of the Board 

P. M. Harwood . , . General Agent, Dairy Bureau 

From the Massachusetts State Forestry Department 

F. W. Rane State Forester 

L. H. Worthley .... Assistant Forester 

H. O. Cook ..... Assistant Forester 



ITINERARY 



The "Better Farming Special" will arrive at the cities and 
towns named below, as follows: — 



Westfield 

PiTTSFIELD 

Cheshire 
North Adams 



Wednesday, March 30 



9:30 A.M. 

12:10 P.M. 

2:00 P.M. 

4:10 P.M. 



Chester 
Springfield 
Enfield 
New Salem 
Athol 



Thursday, March 31 



9:00 a.m. 
11:15 a.m. 

1:15 P.M. 
2:50 P.M. 
4:20 P.M. 



Friday, April 1 

Templeton 9:00 A.M. 

Barre Plains . , 10:30 A.M. 

Ware 12:15 p.m. 

Palmer 2:00 p.m. 

East Brookfield . . . . . . 4:10 p.m. 

Saturday, April 2 

Worcester 9:00 a.m. 

Westboro 10:20 A.M. 

South Framingham 12:00 Noon 

MiLFORD 2:00 P.M. 



EXHIBITS 

The following exhibits will be found on the train : 

General Agriculture 

Illustrating the results of fertilizer experiments with corn: 
(a) By means of charts showing relative yield of entire crop in 
shock. 

(d) Separate lots of ears showing relative yield on different fer- 
tilizer combinations. 

Illustrating the value of corn as a component of the ration 
for egg production: 

(a) By means of glass jars showing the composition of different 
rations. 

{/}) By boxes showing the different number of eggs. 
Illustrating the value of lime for clover and alfalfa : 
(a) By means of photographs. 

(/}) By means of small bundles or bales showing the quality of 
product with and without lime. 

Illustrating the use of fertilizers: 

{a) High grade and low grade fertilizers. 

(d) Home-mixed vs. factory-mixed goods. 

(<:) Type of home-mixed fertilizers. 

((/) Types of factory-mixed fertilizers of same composition. 



Horticulture 

Spraying apparatus of all kinds. 
Pruning tools of most approved design. 
Specimens illustrating the right and wrong way to remove 
a branch in pruning. 

Various types of fruit packages. 

9 



Appliances for the packing room. 
Apples packed in barrels and boxes. 

Illustrating the results of orchard experiments with fer- 
tilizers : 

((r) By means of charts showing the size of trees and yields of 
all variety. 

(/>) By lots of apples showing relative 3'ields of one variet}- on 
different fertilizers. 

Illustrating the dependence of crops belonging to Cruci- 
ferae (cabbage, cauliflower, turnips) on soluble, phosphoric 
acid fertilizers: 

(a) By means of photograi)hs. 

(d) By model of rape in pots. 

Riker mounts showing the most important and common 
insect pests of our fruit trees, garden crops, field crops, etc., 
together with directions for the control of these pests. 

Examples of the work of insects. 

Dairying 

Utensils of various kinds — separators, coolers, etc. 
Various materials and charts illustrating the points of 
feeding or dairying: 

{a) Collection of low-grade hy-products; value and cost. 

(/') Types of feed containing low grade by-products. 

(r) Tj'pes of economical feeds. 

(d) Types of satisfactory feed mixtures. 

(e) Relative proportion of different parts of mature and im- 
mature varieties of corn; also }'ield of digestible matter per acre. 

{/) Proportion of the ingredients in milk from different breeds 
of cows. 

ig) Geiber method of detecting diet in milk. 

(//) Chart showing cost of milk production. 
The Dairy Bureau of the State Board of Agriculture will 
also exhibit sanitary milk pails, absorbent cotton, strainers, 
coolers, mixing cans, milk bottles, milk cans, etc. Also samples 
of butter, oleomargarine and renovated butter with demon- 
strations of practical methods of telling one from another. 

10 



Forestry 

Pine seedlings, varying in age from one to three years. 

Photographs showing forestry management and re-forest- 
ation work. 

Photographs showing forest hres and damage done b}^ 
same. 

Complete equipment for forest fire fighting. 

Living gypsy moth caterpillars. 

Living brown-tail caterpillars. 

Mounted specimens of the gypsy and brown-tail moths life 
history. 

Several cases of parasites, such as have been imported 
from abroad. 

Living Calosoma beetles. 

Predaceous beetles of the gypsy moth. 

Photographs showing different methods used in moth 
suppresion work. 

Photographs of apparatus used in moth suppression work. 

Small section of trees showing proper tin patching. 

Gj'psy moth egg clusters as they are deposited naturally. 

Small oak tree showing brown-tail moth webs in their 
winter stage. 

Living egg parasites. 

Mounted specimens of some insects of economic im- 
portance. 



11 



PROGRAM 

The program at each of the cities and towns visited by 
the "Better Farming Special" will include lectures and de- 
monstrations in all of the five cars comprising the train, on 
Corn Judging and Improvement; Potato Growing; Grass, 
Clover and Alfalfa Production; Fertilizers; Feeding and Breed- 
ing of Animals; Production and Care of Milk; Testing Milk; 
Marketing of Milk; New England Meat Production; Scoring 
and Judging Dairy Animals; Care and Management of 
Orchards; Spraying, Pruning, Packing and Marketing Fruit; 
Forestry; Extermination of Insect Pests; Forest Fire 
Fighting. 

Note of Explanation 

The following articles on "The Massachusetts Agricultural 
College" and "Agriculture in Massachusetts" were prepared 
under the direction of the Faculty of the Massachusetts Agri- 
cultural College. 

The article on "The State Board of Agriculture" was 
prepared under the direction of the Secretary of the Board. 

The article on "Forestry Work in Massachusetts" was 
prepared under the direction of the Massachusetts State 
Forester. 



12 



The Massachusetts A^ricuhural 
College 

ALL the agricultural colleges of the United States are an 
outgrowth of a persistent agitation on the part of the 
people of the country for a national system, of agricultural 
education; this movement culminated in 1862 in the passage 
by Congress of a bill known as the Morrill Act which provided 
that in each state and territory of the Union there might be 
established a college of agriculture and mechanic arts. In 
1863 the state of Massachusetts accepted the federal grant and 
appropriated the money necessary to receive its benefits. 

The United States' gift to the various states was in the 
form of public lands located in the unsettled and unexplored 
regions of our Northwest. Massachusetts received as her 
apportionment 360,000 acres. At that time such virgin land 
was valued at about $1.00 per acre, and accordingly the 
amount of $360,000 realized from the sale of these lands, rep- 
resents the original endowment for the schools of agriculture 
and mechanic arts of this state. Of the income from this en- 
dowment, amounting to approximate!}' $10,000 annually, one- 
third is assigned to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
which supplies the institution in the mechanic arts, and two- 
thirds to the agricultural college at Amherst. In 1890 and 
1907 respectively, acts were passed by the United States Con- 
gress making further annual appropriations to the land-grant 
institutions of the country, so that in the present year (1910) 
the Massachusetts Agricultural College receives a total of 
$35i355-55 from the federal government for instruction and 
general support. The state supplements this maintenance by 
annual gifts of about $94,000 in addition to liberal appropria- 




r D 



14 



tions for special purposes such as buildings, repairs, and addi- 
tional equipment. 

Altho the State of Massachusetts accepted the federal 
grant in 1863, and the college incorporated that year, the first 
class of students did not enter until October, 1867. At that 
date Amherst had been selected as the site for the institution, 
and a large tract of land had been purchased in that and the 
adjoining town of Hadley. It was necessary for the town se- 
curing the location of the college to contribute $75,000 for the 
erection of the college buildings; this sum the residents of 
Amherst subscribed, and the college opened its doors with an 
equipment of four buildings, and an entering class of about 
tift}' students. 

Four instructors comprised the original teaching staff. 
These were: Col. William S. Clark, president and professor 
of botany and horticulture; Levi Stockbridge, farm superin- 
tendent and instructor in agriculture; Henr}' H. Goodell, pro- 
fessor of modern languages and instructor in gymnastics and 
military tactics; and EbenezerSnell, professor of mathematics. 
Of this group Col. Clark remained president until 1879; Levi 
Stockbridge continued to serve the college as instructor and 
for a short time as president, until recent years; Professor 
Goodell in 1886 became president, which office he held until 
his death in 1905; Professor Snell was onl}^ temporaril}' em- 
ployed b}' the college as he held a permanent position in a 
nearby institution. Shortly after the college was opened, Dr. 
Charles A. Goessmann became a member of the faculty as pro- 
fessor of chemistry, and continued to hold that position until 
his retirement from active service in 1907. 

Once well established and under the efficient leadership of 
its trustees and faculty, the institution was destined to grow. 
For thirty years its growth was apparently slow and at times 
fluctuating. During this period however, a firm foundation 
for subsequent rapid development was securely laid. In 1900 
the faculty had grown from four to twenty-two members, and 
the courses of study had been correspondingly amplified; the 

15 




16 



physical equipment had also been materiall}' increased; and 
the number of reg^ular students in attendance had reached one 
hundred and fifty. 

The last ten 3'ears represent for the colleji^e an era of 
marked and almost phenomenal development along various 
lines. The value of the college equipment including land, 
buildings, and movable equipment, has more than doubled in 
this time; a like increase has occurred in the teaching force; 
and the number of regular students in attendance has increas- 
ed more than 135%. The buildings which have been erected 
in this decade are: A dining hall, horticultural building, 
botanical laboratory, floricultural building with attached glass 
houses, entomological laboratory (not completed at present), 
and two sets of farm buildings to replace those destro3^ed by 
fire. 

New departments have been established along the lines of 
pomology, floriculture, landscape gardening, market garden- 
ing, animal husbandry, dairying, farm administration, rural 
sociology, English, Spanish, agricultural education, agricul- 
tural economics, and physical education. A graduate school 
of agriculture, horticulture and allied sciences has been estab- 
lished during this decade, and the work of short courses and 
extension has been put on a permanent basis. 

This latter field of work is the one in which the agricul- 
tural college may be expected to make its greatest advance- 
ment in the next few years because it represents the third 
function of the agricultural college to be developed. The 
work of extension means the disseminating, in modified forms, 
the agricultural knowledge taught at the college, and the new 
knowledge discovered in the experiment station work, to every 
tiller of the soil throughout the state who does not in any 
other way derive a direct benefit from the college; this work 
will supply the much needed instruction to the great farming 
class of people, who can obtain such information in no way 
except through this department of the college. 

In 1887 the federal government founded a system of ex- 

17 



periment stations all over the country, and made provision for 
their liberal support, which in this state is supplemented by 
further state grants. In Massachusetts the experiment station 
was established at Amherst and became an organic part of the 
agricultural college. The work of the experiment stations is 
primarily that of research and experimentation, and of con- 
trol through inspection of fertilizers and feeds. 

The importance of the agricultural industry has never as 
now been so keenly realized by the masses of people. The 
United States Department of Agriculture, the state board of 
agriculture, and the agricultural college are the logical and 
only properly equipped institutions to promote this industry in 
Massachusetts, and to exercise the necessary leadership along 
all lines of rural betterment. 



18 



The State Board of Agriculture 

THE Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture was organ- 
ized in 1852, with Governor Boutwell as a member ex- 
officio. It is a representative Board, being made up in the 
imain, of members elected by the various agricultural societies 
; throughout the State, with three members appointed by the 
Qovernor, and eight members ex-officio. There are at pres- 
ent. thirt3^-one societies electing members to the Board, each 
of whom serves for three years, retiring in approximately 
equ?.],! numbers each 3'ear. The Board is organized into com- 
mitteeg, ;and through its members, in all parts of the State, 
keeps in close touch with the farmers and farm conditions. 
Its duties are both supervisory and educational. It is charged 
with the oversight of the various agricultural societies, includ- 
ing the dut}^ of inspecting their fairs and reporting whether 
they are properly conducted and whether the money received 
from tlifi; Commonwealth as bount}' is properly expended. It 
has various other administrative duties which it discharges 
through; ils committees and agents, chief among which are 
the work of the Dairy Bureau in preventing and prosecuting 
violations of the laws against imitation dair}- products and the 
work of the State Nursery Inspector against the San Jose scale. 
The Board holds several business meetings during the 
year, a public winter meeting for lectures and discussions, and 
at least one summer field meeting, usually with demonstrations 
of new and improved methods in agriculture. It prints an 
annual report, known as "Agriculture of Massachusetts," 
which contains the lectures and discussions at the winter 
meeting, the annual report of various officers charged with 
work for the improvement of agriculture, and is bound with the 
annual report of the Massachusetts Experiment Station. An 

19 



edition of 15,000 copies of this report is printed, one-half of 
which is distributed by the members of the legislature, and 
the other half by the Secretary of the Commonwealth and 
the State Board of Agriculture. The Board sends copies of 
this report to the agricultural societies, granges, farmers' 
clubs and other organizations which ask for it. In this report 
is gathered together the agricultural information of public 
value distributed during the year by the agencies which the 
State has set up for the improvement of this industry. 

In its educational work the Board supplies speakers for 
farmers' institutes, held b}' the agricultural societies and 
by other organizations covering sections beyond the jurisdic- 
tion of those societies, prints crop reports, bulletins, nature 
leaflets and circulars. In the institute work there is a great 
and growing interest, as shown by the increased attendance 
at the meetings. In 1908 Massachusetts was surpassed by but 
one or two States in the matter of attendance per dollar ex- 
pended, and was well up towards the front in attendance per 
meeting, being surpassed only by the great agricultural States 
of the country. These meetings are free to the public and 
are always advertised as widely as possible. A new feature of 
these public meetings has been the demonstration work which 
has been added to the general work of the Board during the 
past few years. This has been found to be remarkably valu- 
able and interesting and will be extended as far as funds 
available will permit. 

The Board publishes a crop report through the growing 
season, from May to October of each year, which is sent to 
any one requesting it. These reports contain descriptions of 
crop conditions, both in Massachusetts and elsewhere, and 
each number has an article on some timely and important 
agricultural problem, by some authorit}' on the subject. In 
addition to these crop reports the Board publishes bulletins 
and nature leaflets. Its Bulletin, No. 2, on Orcharding, has 
been commented on very favorably as being as fine a collec- 
tion of information on this timely and important subject, as 

20 



is now available. The Nature Leaflets, numbered from i to 
46, treat on a variety of subjects, including insects, fungus 
diseases, birds, school gardens, production and care of milk, 
care and treatment of trees, how to plant, cold frames and 
hotbeds, etc. All of these bulletins and leaflets will be sent 
free on application to the Secretary of the Board, J. Lewis 
Ellsworth, State House, Boston. 

A recent phase of the Board's activit}' has been the cam- 
paign against the San Jose scale which it has inaugurated and 
is now carry on. This insect is a terrible pest in our orchards, 
because of its concealed approach, its rapid multiplication 
and its deadly effects on the trees. The Board is doing all in 
its power to inform the farmers of the State in regard to this 
insect, by demonstration meetings, leaflets, circulars, etc. Its 
latest publication is a circular quoting the law in relation to 
this pest, whereby the State Nursery Inspector, an officer 
elected by the Board, can enter upon private property, upon 
complaint, and compel the owners at their own expense to 
clean up their trees or destroy' them. In this wsLy a careful 
propert}^ owner can be protected against the carelessness, or 
worse, of his neighbors. 

The State Dairy Bureau consists of three members of the 
Board, appointed b}^ the Governor, and having under them a 
General Agent, elected by the Board, and other agents em- 
ployed on a per diem basis. They are charged with the 
enforcement of the laws in regard to dairy products and their 
imitations, particularly in regard to oleomargarine and reno- 
vated butter. Their work has been exceedingly efficient, 
there having been 202 prosecutions by the Bureau in 1908, all 
of which resulted in convictions. They also carry on educa- 
tional work, hold public meetings and issue circulars of 
information. 



21 



Agriculture in Massachusetts 

THE greatest asset of our Massachusetts agriculture is our 
market. In the many mills and factories lying along our 
water courses, are employed thousands of operatives. These 
must be fed; they demand all kinds of farm produce, and in 
constantly increasing amounts. This market is at the farmer's 
door, waiting only to be developed; and we are negligent if we 
allow the opportunity to pass by without improvement. Also, 
the wide range in soils and variations in climate conditions, 
fit the state peculiarly for development of those agricultural 
specialties in which the greatest financial success may be 
found. Thus, in the region around Boston the market gar- 
dening industry has of late j^ears been extensively developed. 
A part of this is really farming under glass — the most inten- 
sive form of agriculture, and the one in which conditions of 
growth of the product may be most perfectl}^ controlled. 
Whole towns have been given up to it — Arlington, Belmont, 
and Concord, each with its own specialty as regards the crop. 

It is not too much to prophesy that very soon the lighter 
soils lying to the south and west of Boston will themselves 
come to be occupied and tilled as truck farms, furnishing fruits 
and vegetables for all of our great cities. With our well-de- 
veloped transportation systems distance from market is not 
now the handicap that it once was; and consequently lands in 
Pl3'mouth and Bristol counties which have not been cultivated 
for sixty years, or since the time that grain farming became 
unprofitable, are being again put to the plow, and by the aid 
of modern tillage methods made to produce bountifully, and 
to yield handsome profits to the operators. 

In other parts of the state, areas of different character 
must be accorded different treatment. The immense rise in 

22 



land values which came to Cape Cod, co-incident with the 
introduction of cranberry culture, is now a matter of history. 
Swamp lands having no worth to agriculture were converted 
into bogs highl}' and permanent!}' profitable. May we not 
expect the same thing to happen on the hill farms of Wor- 
cester and Berkshire counties.-' The New England Fruit Show, 
held last fall in Boston, showed that quality is inherent in our 
Massachusetts fruits; and that our western brothers have taken 
the market onl}^ because we have been asleep, and not alive 
to our opportunities. The awakening has come, however; 
and this very spring apples are being largely planted. In 
some cases pasture lands, worth, perhaps, fifteen dollars per 
acre, are being transformed into orchards which within a few 
years will have an increased value of several hundred per 
cent; run-down mowings are being broken up for the same 
purpose, as well as lands naturally more valuable. The men 
who are willing to mix brains with their fertilizers, and who 
will not spare elbow grease in their tillage operations, are the 
ones who are to succeed in this new-old undertaking. 

Meat is higher than it has been for a generation. Proba- 
bly it will remain high, for its price is closel}- correlated with 
that of corn, and the farmers in the corn belt are finding pro- 
duction more and more expensive. Why shouldn't we raise 
some of our own meat, instead of depending on what is doled 
out to us from the middle west ? All over the state, but 
especially in the western half, are back pastures which are 
growing up to weeds and brush; and these can be turned to 
good account in beef and mutton production. Here again, is 
where we have advantage from our location. It is easily 
possible for the stock raiser to do his own marketing, and 
save middlemen's fees. This is perhaps the most hopeful 
outlook for agriculture in our more remote towns. Kill the 
dogs, and let us keep sheep ! 

Another line of farm industry which is especially promis- 
ing is poultry production. Our rougher soil is ideal for this 
business, and can be bought at prices, ridiculously low, which 

23 



will allow of large ranges — always desirable in poultry plants. 
Poultry products are concentrated; they may be transported 
long distances at low costs; nearness to market is not essen- 
tial. While experience in the business is necessary, yet the 
beginner without capital has more chance in this than in any 
other line of agricultural work. At present the market is 
almost entirely supplied from outside the state; and there are 
few large towns but what would welcome the coming of an 
energetic poultry man. If we are to be rid of dependence on 
cold storage, we must enter this field. The market waits for 
it, demands it — and still we let the opportunity slip. 

In the Connecticut valley we find two specialized forms 
of farming, onion and tobacco raising. Both are well devel- 
oped; and the farmers among the most prosperous of any in 
the state. Their success is deserved, however, for it has come 
only by fearless use of capital, and intelligent application of 
scientific principles to this business. What they have done 
may be done by others, in the different departments of agri- 
culture. 

Opportunities lie in the development of better farming 
methods as well as in the introduction of new farm industries. 
We take a great deal of justifiable pride in our Massachusetts 
farms; but still, figures show that they are not realizing a 
tithe of the possibilities which are theirs. 

The average acre yield of corn in this state, during the 
decade ending 1908, was the second largest in the country, 
nearly thirty-six bushels to the acre. Yet this last season a 
Massachusetts man produced 132 bushels shelled grain on a 
measured acre, and last year there was harvested in Connecti- 
cut a crop which measured up to 133 bushels. What 
opportunities for improvement ! And think of the possibilities 
of a corn and pork farm, with pork at the present prices ! 

In the ten years ending 1908, our average yield of potatoes 
was 104 bushels per acre. In the last year of this period 
Aroostook county, Maine, produced an average of 225 bushels; 
and the writer knows of a fifty acre patch of potatoes in the 

24 



highlands of FrankHn count3% this state, which last year total- 
ed thirteeo thousand bushels — 260 to the acre. Conscientious 
spraying, scientific fertilization, careful planting and cultiva- 
tion, mean the difference between one hundred and two 
hundred bushels per acre. In the light of these figures, is it 
necessary for us to import our potatoes .'* 

The Massachusetts Agricultural College, on some of its 
permanent grass plots, has for fifteen years averaged three 
tons of hay to the acre. Last year, on a mowing three years 
down in grass, it harvested five tons to the acre, and hay is 
worth $15 per ton in the barn. Farmers in other sections of 
the state have averaged even higher, and one in Worcester 
county, this last year, secured four and a half tons per acre 
from his whole farm. Yet the average in the state is but one 
and a quarter tons ! Are there not possibilities in grass pro- 
duction .'' 

No discussion of Massachusetts agriculture would be com- 
plete without reference to the dairy industr3^ There is in the 
state no well recognized dairy section, farms in all parts being 
given up to this kind of farming. It is tending to move away 
from the vicinity of the cities, however, and is not at present 
increasing. Competition has been keen and profits not large. 
Greater attention is now being given to cooperative selling, 
to the home production of feeds, and to the exact balancing 
of food production for each individual animal. The outlook 
is brighter toda}' than for some years past. 

In conclusion — come to Massachusetts ! The climate is 
good and the soil strong and lasting — Connecticut valley lands 
were producing corn at the time they were taken over by the 
colonists, and yields are higher toda}' than ever before; and 
the market we firmly believe the best in the country. 



25 



Forestry Work In Massachusetts 

WE as Americans are proud of our country, and point with 
justifiable pride to the lofty position we have attained 
among- the nations of the earth in what is considered an ex- 
ceedingly brief time when contrasted with the ages of other 
countries. Our marvellous growth and prosperity has been 
the never ceasing wonder of the whole world. We owe this 
unparalleled development in large part to the wealth of our 
natural resources which have, to satisfy the inherent greed of 
man, been drawn upon to such an extent as to render their 
ultimate extinction only a question of years unless prompt 
and effective measures are taken to conserve them. Thinking 
men, leading men, in all parts of the country are awakened 
to the importance of this great question. True to the trad- 
itions of her past whenever the public welfare has been con- 
cerned, Massachusetts is among the first of the states to take 
action. A State Forestr}- Department has been created for 
the purpose of applying to Massachusetts the most modern 
and scientific methods of forestry. No better field for this 
work exists than in this grand old state of ours. Massachu- 
setts contains approximately- three million acres of land not 
suitable for agricultural purposes, once covered with valuable 
timber that can again be made to yield a rich harvest. Where 
is there, or where can there be, an object more worthy of our 
faculties and energies than adding to the wealth and prosperity 
of our state, not onl}' for ourselves, but for coming generations, 
by re-clothing these vast areas of now practically worthless 
lands. Under the authority given him by an act of the Gen- 
eral Court, the State Forester, F. W. Rane, stands ready at 
all times to promote the perpetuation, extension, and proper 
management of the forest lands of the Commonwealth, both 

26 



public and private. If you have such lands and desire an ex- 
amination of them, and advice as to their management, you 
have only to apply to him in person, or in writing at 6 Beacon 
Street, Boston, Room icxdq. The only expense to you for this 
examination and advice is cost of subsistence and travel of 
the State Forester, or his assistants, incurred while doing 
this work. The work of re-forestation under the direction of 
the State Forester is being pushed along rapidly. Already 
several thousand acres of land acquired by the state 'have 




FOREST FIRE WAGON CONSTRUCTED and EQUIPPED UNDER the DIRECTION 
of F. W. RANE, MASSACHUSETTS STATE FORESTER 



been set to white pine and the nurseries maintained by the 
Department contain 3,500,000 seedlings of which 1,500,000 
are to be planted the coming season. We desire at this point 
to call the attention of the farmers, in fact all owners of non- 
agricultural lands, that there is no better investment than in 
planting them to white pine and in some cases other species. 
If there are those who are financially unable to bear the cost 
of this work at the present time they may take advantage of 
the law which permits them to deed land to the state for the 
purpose of re-forestation, reserving the right to acquire it back 

27 



again at any time within ten _vears by paying the actual cost 
of the re-forestation work. 

The paramount object of the State Forester is by object 
lessons wherever possible, and by the dissemination of liter- 
ature to educate the land-owning public to a realization of its 
opportunities. A bulletin recently issued by him entitled 
"How to Make Improvement Thinnings" contains information 
of great value to owners of timber and sprout land, showing 
as it does how this work properly done increases the amount 
and quantity of the yield. This bulletin will be sent upon re- 
quest to any citizen in the state. Another bulletin on 
"Reforestation and Nursery Work" is in press and will be 
available shortly. 

As forest fires have ever been regarded the most for- 
midable agency in retarding progressive forestry, it has been 
the problem to which the State Forester has given much 
thought and study. How to prevent the burning over of 
thousands of acres of w^oodland yearly, entailing a loss run- 
ning up into hundreds of thousands of dollars, is a question of 
supreme importance. It is a question fraught with so much 
danger to the wealth of Massachusetts that the State For- 
ester is fully justified in demanding the support and co-opera- 
tion of the citizens everywhere in the enforcement of the laws 
and regulations intended to lessen their freciuency. 

Our observation and experience prompt us to express the 
opinion that cities and towns with forest area can make no 
investment which in the end will prove more profitable than 
procuring proper apparatus for fighting forest fires. The 
State Forester has had constructed and fully equipped a 
wagon designed expressly for this work, and it is now on ex- 
hibition at the Supply Store, 251 Causeway Street, Boston. 
Town officials contemplating purchasing an outfit are advised 
to call and examine it. 



28 



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